Studies indicate that individuals with too flexible joints may be more susceptible to prolonged COVID-19 episodes and chronic fatigue.
Due to variations in the nature of the connective tissues that support, shield, and give structure to organs, joints, and other tissues, hypermobility is the condition in which some or all of a person’s joints have an abnormally wide range of motion.
Many of the up to 20% of persons who are hypermobile are in perfect health. Many musicians and athletes have extremely flexible joints, proving that hypermobility can even be advantageous. On the other hand, it can also lead to issues like an increased risk of discomfort, exhaustion, joint injuries, and digestive or stomach issues.
When the Covid epidemic struck, Dr. Jessica Eccles of the University of Sussex and her colleagues were looking into a possible connection between hypermobility, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), and fibromyalgia, a disorder that causes pain throughout the body.
When the Covid epidemic struck, Dr. Jessica Eccles of the University of Sussex and her colleagues were looking into a possible connection between hypermobility, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), and fibromyalgia, a disorder that causes pain throughout the body.
“We started thinking, if hypermobility is potentially a factor in ME/CFS, is it also a factor in long Covid?” stated Eccles.
In order to determine whether or not 3,064 participants in the Covid symptom study (now known as the Zoe health study) had hypermobile joints, had fully recovered from their most recent Covid episode, and if they were dealing with chronic fatigue, she teamed up with academics from King’s College London to analyze participant data.
According to the study, which was published in BMJ Public Health, persons with hypermobile joints were considerably more likely to have extreme weariness and were almost 30% more likely than those with normal joints to report that they had not fully recovered from COVID-19.
While the study does not establish a causal relationship between the patients’ hypermobility and the illness, it does offer a conceivable mechanism by which it can be linked to symptoms including weariness, cognitive fog, and postural tachycardia syndrome (PoTS), a condition in which standing causes an abrupt spike in heart rate.
“We’ve known for some time that PoTs is closely associated with hypermobility.” Eccles continued. According to the idea, people may experience symptoms like palpitations and dizziness when their loose connective tissue in their veins and arteries causes blood to pool in their tissues. This puts more strain on the heart to pump blood to the brain when the person stands up.
“It may be that some of these abnormalities were always there, but Covid unmasked them in a vulnerable person,” Eccles stated.
She is looking into the possibility that, in some cases, brain fog and exhaustion could be caused by decreased blood supply to the brain. There are other options, though.
Eccles stated: “We also know that hypermobility is related to conditions such as ADHD and autism, and ME/CFS and fibromyalgia, so fatigue might be a consequence of that.”
While highlighting the likelihood that long-term Covid would not be a single entity, she added that a deeper comprehension of the connection to hypermobility could facilitate the creation of novel treatments.
According to her, “What this work suggests is that there may be a subgroup of people with long Covid who are more likely to be hypermobile,”
“This is important to identify. It may be that some of the same things that help people with hypermobility and pain, such as strengthening and supporting the core muscles, could help across the board.”